Ten years ago, the 50th anniversary of D-Day was a major bookselling event. But this June 6, despite a fair number of related titles, the 60th anniversary of the military initiative that signaled the beginning of the end of World War II is not expected to draw legions of readers into bookstores.
Although the commemorative ceremonies are likely to garner plenty of media coverage—with President Bush joining Queen Elizabeth II, President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on the beaches of Normandy—few booksellers expect the televised coverage to have a major sales impact.
Chain stores and independent booksellers anticipate a good performance for Douglas J.Brinkley and Ronald J. Drez's compilation, Voices of Valor: D-Day, June 6, 1944 (Bulfinch, May), which pairs photos and text with two 60-minute CDs of testimony from veterans. Several also mentioned David Stafford's Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion (Little, Brown, May), which draws on previously unpublished diaries and letters, as a book to watch.
Many also expect a handful of backlist titles by perennially popular historian Stephen E. Ambrose to make a strong showing. At Borders, the mid-April rebroadcast of the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers on the History Channel caused sales of the Ambrose title on which it's based (S&S, 1992) to "skyrocket," according to Ann Cassidy, buyer of world and military history. To coincide with re-broadcasts on the same channel in June, the chain plans to display Ambrose's three other D-Day titles—D-Day, June 6, 1944 (S&S, 1994), Citizen Soldiers (S&S, 1997) and The Wild Blue (S&S, 2001)—at the front of the store and in other key sections.
While most major historical anniversaries might receive media attention for a few weeks or a month, D-Day has also benefited from retired veterans buying commemorative travel packages, which many have been planning for several months, Cassidy said. She also noted that Borders is also doing well with a D-Day map displayed at the front of the store and in the travel section, and with some movies on DVD, such as Saving Private Ryan.
But an abundance of media attention doesn't necessarily guarantee robust book sales. Many publishers were disappointed with commemorative book sales around the 40th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination last November. Cassidy also expressed surprise that other recent anniversaries didn't spur better sales, such as the 50th anniversaries of the death of Stalin (Mar. 5, 2004) and the end of the Korean War (July 27, 2003), which both garnered media coverage.
Even in the most favorable markets, tie-ins to major WWII anniversaries are not certain to sell. Barbara Chambers, the manager at Bay Books in Coronado, Calif., an island community off the coast of San Diego that's home to the Naval Amphibious Base and a Navy Seal's training base, said that she has not noticed a pronounced D-Day sales rush in recent years. The store's adult trade buyer, David Joslin, attributed lackluster sales to today's "intensely rich news environment," which makes it hard for even major anniversaries to compete with sensational world events.
Christine Stanley, owner of Bay Street Trading Company in Beaufort, S.C., near one the largest Marine training facilities in the country, said that she doesn't expect a significant sales spike either. "Because of the military base, we sell more than one or two of those types of titles, but not very many more," she said.
